[LotuSeed]

  ...
So much hard work but oh so worth it! That must look amazing OMG. And you keep bees?! *Gasps. I don't even like honey that move but I've been looking into beekeeping for a couple of years. Maybe next year 
Btw how do you store such a large amount of flour for long term use?

[tosca100]

I have a bin for flour. But we are in a village with three shops who sell it too, it is unlikely that we would be cut off for too long as we are only a couple of k from a major road (by major I mean it will take a lorry both ways and there are lees potholes!)

[Comfreypatch]

Hi
Have just finished my first lot of canning. Now have several jars of pasta sauce it took a while to work out the best way of doing it. My pans were either to small or too big! Then remembered that I had an asparagus steamer so used that, had to do one bottle at a time, but it worked out better, so thanks for all the help. I looked at the videos of Bulgarian country life, sounds good to me.

[LotuSeed]

Yay! Congratulations! 

[tosca100]

Comfreypatch, I'm glad it worked out for you. I think it's all about finding the best way for you, while being safe. I understand in some countries being ultra safe has become a way of life, and I would always recommend that for anyone with vulnerable people in the household, but the Bulgarian methods work for us and I am surrounded by ancient Bulgarians who have lived this way for generations.

That doesn't mean I like a lot of what they do, in my mind fresh is best, but I embrace the bits that suit me!

And I don't need to do the squat peppers, the geese have eaten them! They have started on the cabbages as they pass too, but they won't eat either if you give them any in their feed! No geese next year!

[Comfreypatch]

Thanks tosca. Made more today but this time to freeze as I needed to use up the very many courgettes I have and couldn't find a reliable one for bottling I must say it took half the time, but freezer space is a a premium right now. I make a lot of soup to see us through the winter months, OH is a big soup fan

[LotuSeed]

Comfreypatch, I feel your disappointment at not being able to find a recipe for exactly the ingredients you want to use! If you make the sauce again and are short on freezer space you could always try freezing the courgettes , bottling the sauce separately and then combining the two when you're ready to use them.

Comfreypatch, I'm glad it worked out for you. I think it's all about finding the best way for you, while being safe. I understand in some countries being ultra safe has become a way of life, and I would always recommend that for anyone with vulnerable people in the household, but the Bulgarian methods work for us and I am surrounded by ancient Bulgarians who have lived this way for generations.

That doesn't mean I like a lot of what they do, in my mind fresh is best, but I embrace the bits that suit me!

And I don't need to do the squat peppers, the geese have eaten them! They have started on the cabbages as they pass too, but they won't eat either if you give them any in their feed! No geese next year!

You're completely right about finding what works for you. I wish that with all the safety guidelines here there was more flexibility with the recipes, especially the ones containing tomatoes. It would be nice if there was a common ratio of tomato to added acid so I didn't have to do all sorts of calculations and feel like I'm performing a science experiment!  The tested recipes that I mentioned in an earlier post are ones that have been scientifically tested. That said, recipes that others have created themselves aren't by default unsafe, they just haven't been tested in a lab and so big companies like Ball (Who creates most of the canning materials available here, from jars to recipe books) can only recommend their formulations for liability reasons.

For low acid or borderline acid foods I pressure can. But in areas where pressure canners, and the resources to power them are scarce, other methods like drying, salting and pickling work better.

I find the whole topic of food preservation methods really interesting and it's great learning different techniques and traditions. 



 

[Snoop]

Thanks tosca. Made more today but this time to freeze as I needed to use up the very many courgettes I have and couldn't find a reliable one for bottling I must say it took half the time, but freezer space is a a premium right now. I make a lot of soup to see us through the winter months, OH is a big soup fan

My impression is that there are no really satisfactory recipes for canning soups. The best way to do it according to Trillium, who used to provide lots of canning and other advice on this site, is to can the soup with the vegetables in smallish chunks rather than pre-blended. You then blend when you want to serve it. The reason for this is that the temperature at the centre of a thick soup doesn't get high enough to ensure food safety. Unfortunately, courgettes also apparently look a bit unappetising after the canning time required.

Thanks for all your advice LotuSeed. I still haven't given up on the idea of canning.

[LotuSeed]

Thanks tosca. Made more today but this time to freeze as I needed to use up the very many courgettes I have and couldn't find a reliable one for bottling I must say it took half the time, but freezer space is a a premium right now. I make a lot of soup to see us through the winter months, OH is a big soup fan

My impression is that there are no really satisfactory recipes for canning soups. The best way to do it according to Trillium, who used to provide lots of canning and other advice on this site, is to can the soup with the vegetables in smallish chunks rather than pre-blended. You then blend when you want to serve it. The reason for this is that the temperature at the centre of a thick soup doesn't get high enough to ensure food safety. Unfortunately, courgettes also apparently look a bit unappetising after the canning time required.

Thanks for all your advice LotuSeed. I still haven't given up on the idea of canning.

Soup can be canned lol but it has to be done in a pressure canner. When people start out they are excited at the idea of being able to can their own recipes that they can use right out of the jar. Unfortunately that is not the reality and it can be very discouraging. (Courgettes, other squashes, eggplant and even potatoes are not canned in purée or mashed form because the density of the product can prevent the contents of the jar from heating up properly and killing bacteria.). I canned potatoes this year by cutting them into large, uniform chunks and processing them in the pressure canner. When they were put into the jars they were hard, I did heat them for a few minutes before putting thrm into jars, but after 45 minutes in the canner they were soft, still held their shape perfectly though. I would imagine courgettes or eggplant would turn to mush and that would keep it from heating properly . If you run out of room in your freezer and have a dehydrator you could dehydrate the low acid items you wanted to keep for later use.
The best advice I've found is to keep it simple. If you want to can soup, bottle the broth/stock itself separately, be it vegetable, beef or chicken. Or bottle the beef with broth and the chicken with broth. Bottle (freeze or dry)the low acid vegetables separately as well. It seems like a ton of extra work, but by doing it that way you have a soup base that can be used for just about anything and veggies that can too. 


Here's a link you might find helpful
This one has a list of ingredients that can't be safely canned and the reasons why
http://www.sbcanning.com/2011/11/what-food-and-ingredients-cant-be.html?m=1

And another
This one has the answers to frequently asked question about canning and it also has recipes (including preservation methods other than canning; fermenting, pickling, smoking etc)

http://nchfp.uga.edu/questions/FAQ_canning.html#24

Hope that helps!